You’re also a jackass.
No, the health insurance. Our current health insurance (which, remember, I pay for, it’s not a freebie) is available ONLY to Indiana residents. If we move out of state my husband loses his medical coverage. As covering his daily needs out of pocket would sum up to a total greater than rent, food, and utilities combined that’s a major, major consideration
Excuse me? Are you saying that only people of the “proper” religion should get assistance and everyone else can go to hell? Or do you want to rephrase that? Because that is precisely the attitude I’ve encountered, that if you aren’t of a “correct” religion you don’t deserve help. An attitude that you’ve rather huffily denied existed, but which you have apparently just demonstrated.
My most lucrative jobs over the past two years have been painting building exteriors - which I can’t do in an Indiana winter - and lawn care/landscaping services - which I can’t do in an Indiana winter - and working for the Census - which won’t be available after this year. Thus, it shouldn’t be surprising that things got quite dire around December. During the summer I actually make enough to live on. Right now the problem seems to be doing it all year round.
When I could not find someone who would hire me I started working as a self-employed sub-contractor (for the construction type work) and independent person. Unfortunately, while doing such does bring in money MOST months of the year those times it does not I am completely ineligible for unemployment benefits of any sort.
I am currently working on two projects in my down time that might pay off in work that can be done either during my winter “down time” or in addition to my outdoor work in summer. IF successful either one (or both) will allow me to start climbing back into the middle class IF successful. But starting a business in ANY economic situation carries risk, even more so in these times.
So, please, do not labor under the illusion I am lazy or shiftless - I expend a minimum of 8 hours a day either looking for work or looking for work AND attempting to start up a new venture, and more often 10-12 hours a day. In summer, throw in additional 10-15 hours a week working on that garden out back or preserving foods.
I could move to where my sister is (the one my father lives with) but her area is just as economically crapped up as mine. The reason she has job security is because she’s an MD.
Well. Since you’ve made it clear how you feel about degrees that aren’t highly technical I see no purpose in mentioning mine, since it’s clear you’ll find it about as useful as toilet paper (never mind that is was a significant factor in being hired for my prior $50K a year job that I held for 13 years).
Send me info on where to send my resume/apply and I’ll take a look at what you’re company has. A CSR job may suck but I’ve used suck jobs to bootstrap myself before. Can’t be that much worse than dealing with the toilet I replaced last summer with the busted tank and the clog I had to get out of the drain pipe. Now that was a shitty job…
But hey, I’m happy just to have FINALLY gotten my truck fixed this week (you know, the one that enables me to haul a lawnmower and tree-trimming tools around in the summer).
You see, sometimes it takes time to work your way back up, and there can be bumps along the road. What I need most is a steady job that pays a living wage… if I can’t get hired I have the wherewithal to MAKE a job for myself, but you can’t do that overnight, and you’re not going to turn a profit immediately, or at least not enough of one to live on. Would also help if I had some money for capital investment, but I don’t. Silly me - I had never been unemployed longer than two weeks before, I didn’t realize this time was different so I kept looking for a traditional job. If I knew then what I know now I would have tried a start-up much, much earlier but that’s water under the bridge. I guess 30 years of never lacking for a job when I wanted one made me complacent or something. Fact is, I don’t really like being the boss, I was quite happy to work for someone else, but apparently I don’t get that luxury anymore.
Good heavens, I think if I walked on water, you might complain that I can’t swim.
What I meant was, you joined a church (or not… no idea…) that doesn’t assist their families in need, rather than one of the churches in your area that do provide help, but only for members. Or maybe I’m still misunderstanding you. As I mentioned before, all of the churches in our area that I’ve belonged to (3 over the last 15 yrs) provide assistance regardless of religious persuasion. I’m sorry that the ones in your area seem to have lost their way, in my opinion. I wasn’t judging your choices, as my 11 yr old would say, chillax.
Of course I never said nor implied that. If people inferred that, then that’s their problem. Don’t mistake your circumstances and specific situation about a far broader policy discussion about ‘enslaving’ an underclass as a means to buy votes.
- I guess I needed to put the sarcasm smiley in a bigger font? (I’m looking at you, Muffin)
- I don’t have a technical degree, just two business ones, but I did learn all my IT stuff post-hire, since that’s the industry I’m in.
At the end of the day, I think one of the best ways to ensure prosperity is to live in the right place, with lots of opportunities (Loudon and Fairfax also kick ass).
You have confused sarcasm with facetiousness, but that’s OK, given your education or lack thereof.
Smilies don’t scale with font size.
Mr Smashy on the importance of intellectual conscientiousness and backing up assertions with evidence:
Mr Smashy on the virtue of kindness to others:
Mr Smashy on practical measures for escaping poverty:
Ladies and gentlemen of the Straight Dope, I give you… Mr Smashy. And you can have him.
Dude! Not cool.
Let it also be noted that despite his protestations that he wants to help people (presumably to be a good Christian or some such) he STILL has not yet even told me the name of his company, much less any sort of contact by which I can apply for a job. No special treatment or favors - just ordinary applications process like any other mope. He says they need CSR’s, yet he makes no effort to recruit an interested party, not even the small token of giving said party the name of his company so she can pursue the opportunity from there. Typical of his usual backpedaling if you ask me.
Since he clearly has no intention of making it even possible for me to apply for a job at his company which allegedly has such need for CSR’s I guess I can speak my mind freely instead of worrying about having to impress (a.k.a. kiss up to) a potential employer.
I guess he really doesn’t need employees after all. Or at any rate, someone unemployed is automatically undeserving of even a chance of applying for a job at his company. After all, you wouldn’t want all those despicable poor people being able to move to that fantastic county he lives in where there are, you know, actual jobs for them to work at. No, no, no - if they couldn’t exert the effort to be born to a family of suitable privilege they are obviously all deadbeats and undeserving of anything other than scorn, bread crusts to eat, and rags to wear for clothing. Or maybe it’s that whole “you picked the wrong church” thing - I’m not suitably Christian enough, therefore, I deserve to be unemployed, ignored, scorned, spat up, denied opportunity, poor, homeless, and to die in a gutter somewhere without access to healthcare. Or he’ll come back and say I have a “poor attitude” and therefore don’t deserve a job - never mind that he is allowed to have contempt for those he perceives as less than himself yet is still allowed to have employees/serfs/whatever the hell we’re calling them these days.
This isn’t true, except inasmuch as having dependent children makes it easier to qualify.
Or else his descriptions of his career are about as real as Rand Rover’s.
Broom, I’m sorry to see that you continue to take this entire discussion so personally…and emotionally. Every policy point/discussion I made, you took as a personal attack, frequently using strawmen to shout down “We are not lazy!!! I’m not a bum!!!” kind of stuff. I don’t think you’re lazy. I think you’re angry; and if having me as a target for your venting helps you get through the day, then so be it, I’m happy to help.
No I won’t give the name of my company, to you or anyone else on this board. I prefer the anonymous nature of the SDMB, especially in light of my previous sharing of some personal traits in other threads (salary, location, job title). If you can’t deal with that, then too bad.
Since my company has no CSR positions (indeed, any positions or even location) in Indiana, a place where you are evidently anchored to thanks to your subsidized medical insurance, it doesn’t matter anyway. If you really want one of those kinds of jobs, there are ways to find them, here’s 592 job postings for Customer Service reps within 100 miles of Indianapolis. And while do have 25% turnover each year, unless you’re willing to move, it won’t help you.
One last thing: I don’t think you “deserve” to be unemployed, nor do I think anyone unemployed should be barred from working at my (or any other) company, as you’ve charged. I *do *think you have a massive amount of bitterness about this (go back and read the post I’ve quoted) and I suspect that it comes out if/when you do job interviews. Just a guess based on the tone of your posts. If true, then yes, you do actually have a ‘poor attitude’, as least with regard to job acquisition skills.
Dig, dig, dig, dig…“Jah, Boss!”…dig, dig, dig…
That really is generous and self-sacrificing of you, Mr Smashy. I do admire the magnanimous efforts you’re making here to deliberately present yourself as a conceited, smug, elitist, ill-informed, self-righteous asshole, all for the sake of giving Broomstick a useful target on which to vent her anger.
It must be very painful and unpleasant to you to have to misrepresent your true nature so grossly out of your selfless desire to help others, but rest assured that at least some of us around here know how to value it. I only hope Broomstick is suitably grateful, but you know, people like her so often just don’t appreciate their advantages.
Look. As a friendly gesture from one guy to another–stop talking to Broomstick. You can’t see it, but you’re coming off in every way a smug conceited jackass, and every time you post about Broomstick you only make it worse. I mean, unless you take pride in jackassery, for some reason. But you don’t strike me as that kind of guy.
You must think the cashier who smiles at you in McDonald’s actually likes her job.
As I remember a previous encounter with him, and look at Smashy’s “hit parade” from Kimstu, I have to say that he strikes me as that kind of guy.
But he’s a self described moderate.
Moderates by definition, can’t be jackasses. They represent the holy center to which all must aspire.*
Why can’t you see this simple truth, GIGObuster?
Is it because you’re a hater? 
[sub][sub][sub]*bolding indicates the imperative here.[/sub][/sub][/sub]
Ah, yes, - THAT idea again. You know the one - the idea that if someone who is down on their luck expresses ANY dissatisfaction with his/her situation that he/she must be a bitter, angry, angst-ridden wreck and that this oozes like poison sweat from their pores at every job interview.
I have had 4 job interviews in the past 2 years… the result of spending 6 days a week pursuing work. Oddly enough, two of them actually yielded work, and I’m waiting for a phone call on #4 I’m quite optimistic about. Oh, yes, I’m such a wretched interviewee that I’m scoring a job 50% of the time… maybe 75% if this current one pans out.
The problem is NOT the job interview - it’s GETTING AN INTERVIEW in the first place! Clearly you yourself have NOT had to look for a job for quite a few years or else you would know this. So, you’re clueless about actual conditions in the trenches, what else is new? Surprise, surprise.
Another problem, of course, is that all of those jobs are temporary - I haven’t been able to get even an interview for permanent work around here. It’s hard even to find an opening.
Yes, and before the Civil War masters knew the slaves were happy because they sang while they worked.
Hey, I’m just happy to be part of the team. We’ll play them one game at a time. If you’re not making waves, you’re not paddling…
rgr
PS I know I’m smug. Frankly I think a lot of the posters on this board could use a little humility (me included).